Teresa Of All Trades (Book 1 Complete)

God damn it.

Teresa was looting the treasure chest and once again there was more C4. Were all of the strongholds going to give her C4? They better not, Teresa already had more explosives than she knew what to do with.

In the chest at the second stronghold was more of the explosive white putty, a receiver, a detonator, and… was that a wand? Teresa hadn't seen a wand before in the Tutorial, she had seen and used staffs but never wands. Why were there both staffs and wands, what was even the difference aside from one being clearly more portable.

Teresa lifted the wand from the chest, and she could feel the magical patterns within it with her <Mana Control> skill which had reached level 8 in the last fight. They were both similar and completely different to the patterns within the poison staff, Teresa would have to compare them later.

What did it do? Teresa didn't exactly have the <Appraise> skill, so she couldn't really check. She still didn't regret her <Identify> which had indirectly saved her life multiple times by now, but time and time again she was reminded just how nice the other two possible skill rewards would have been.

Should she try using it? What kind of a question was that, of course she should try using it. Sure, it was a wand that was stored in the same container as plastic explosives which had its own implications but of course she was going to try the friggin wand out.

Just maybe not while inside the stronghold, she didn't want to cast <Blow Teresa The Fuck Up> on accident, what if it made a huge explosion? It was next to C4, surely it had something to do with explosions. It would be best if she tested it from a distance.

For now, she went over her gains from the fight.

She had reached level 21, she was already 97% of the way to level 22, her class had leveled up for the first time, <Mana Control> reached level 8 and <Magic Wellspring> reached level 4. The rest of her skills had also seen an improvement, but things slowed down a lot around skill level 7. Additionally, skills like <Healing Touch> were really situational, and she also hadn't used <Totem Of Life> since the first time she used it. The skill had a ridiculously long cooldown, and Teresa was worried she would use it only to be forced out of the Tutorial before it was available again. That would make saving Sarah harder than it needed to be.

Had she wasted her skill choice on <Totem Of Life>? Maybe, but not all of her decisions could work out perfectly. Who knew, maybe she would find more use for it after the Tutorial was over. For now, it was just sitting in her skills list gathering dust.

Wait, she got a class level up. More importantly, she might finally get a skill that wasn't centered around healing. It was about time if you asked her, she could use something to level the playing field. She was still fighting monsters that were below her own level, a good skill might be able to change that.

She opened up a screen in front of her, showing a list of available skills.

<Intuitive Aim: lv 0>

Type: General

To take aim is instinctual, to fire is a command. Your body has adapted to using ranged projectiles, and your understanding of them extends to your ability to land your shots. Aiming ranged attacks will feel more intuitive and natural.

Hang on, Teresa had seen that skill somewhere before. She was pretty sure it was one of Sarah's skills, that and something else. Was the other one <Archery>? Yeah, it totally was. Teresa wasn't entirely sure how those skills worked since all of hers relied on Mana, but it would certainly be a useful addition. Teresa's aim could use some improvements, and this was the kind of skill that would benefit her for potentially the rest of her life.

Regardless, there were more skills available.

<Embers: lv 0>

Type: Elemental Magic

Channel Mana to your palm and convert it into fire-based Elemental Mana that will be dispelled rapidly from your hand.

Holy shit. This one. Teresa wanted this one. It was Madeline's skill from the start of the Tutorial, an offensive spell skill. Teresa was still going to read the last option, but unless it was something that would blow her away she was pretty confident she wanted <Embers>. Teresa read the last option, and it confirmed her choice.

<Purify: lv 0>

Type: Restoration Magic

Channel Mana to your touch and convert it into a healing energy. Use this energy to slowly destroy toxins at a similar level or weaker.

It was just <Purify> again. Her old class had offered it to her multiple times, but Teresa had never needed to pick it up. Interestingly enough, Teresa could only pick from these three skills. As a healer she was able to pick any skill she had been offered at a previous level, but it seemed that didn't carry over when changing classes. Oh well, that <Dead Restoration> skill would have been nice for her hair but really Teresa didn't think choosing a skill based on something as superficial as that was a great plan.

Teresa selected <Embers> and intuitively knew how to use the skill. She was going to have a lot of fun with this new spell, and she began packing up so she could start heading back to Liberty Island.

Grabbing arrows after a fight was a pain in the ass, especially considering Teresa had shot all of them. The skeletons had their own arrows too that got mixed in with Teresa's, but they weren't that great. Teresa's arrows could be repaired with Mana after being used, but the skeleton arrows did not have that same ability. They might still be useful, but Teresa couldn't carry everything she found.

Speaking of grabbing new stuff, why not grab a shield? She hadn't last time she took out a stronghold purely because she didn't think to do it, but really a shield might be useful against archers. If the next stronghold had archer towers in it, she could use the shield to protect herself as she charged up the stairs. She would have to be really careful as she had already demonstrated a shield wasn't always a perfect defense, but it might be useful.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Within half an hour Teresa was ready to go. She had a lot to carry with her, but thankfully Strength wasn't an issue. Logistically it was difficult to transport so many things at once, she only had two hands. Still, she would manage, she didn't have to be comfortable.

As soon as she was a safe distance from the stronghold, she dropped everything to try two new things. She had her new spell, and that wand she found. Teresa took a deep breath and aimed her palm out in the distance, adrenaline flowing through her body as she was ready to cast her first offensive spell.

Mana flowed out from her Soul and through her arm, coursing through her with a trained efficiency. The Mana reached her palm and it reached some ultra-thin barrier, just like with her <Healing Touch>. The Mana was transformed instantaneously into something different, a kind of Mana that radiated heat all throughout her surroundings.

The elemental Mana was shot out from the other side of that transformative barrier, as if the process of creating the new Mana had also generated its own force to propel it. Clumps of elemental Mana formed together and shot out, and a hose of sparks shot out from Teresa's palm. They grew brighter and brighter, a river of flickering embers pouring out from her hand and shooting out into the desert.

Holy shit. Madeline's <Embers> sure as shit didn't have that many sparks, there was a practically solid stream of light shooting out of Teresa's palm, so bright Teresa had to squint to keep her eyes open.

Was this what an increased Intelligence stat did? Teresa was pouring a lot of Mana into this spell, so much so that Madeline would have ran out of Mana in under a minute. Teresa herself could only sustain this spell constantly for about three minutes with her current Mana pool, and she had a capacity of 642.

Teresa was by no means trying to throw shade at Madeline, there were almost 20 levels between the two, but it was crazy to see how much raw stats could empower a level 0 spell. There were so many things Teresa wanted to try out, but it would have to wait until later. She still had to try the wand out after all.

The wand had a black handle of some material that felt like wood, and it had a smooth brown core that protruded out from the handle. Wrapping her hand around it, Teresa felt like sending her Mana through the tool would seamlessly activate whatever it was the wand did.

She aimed it into the distance, in a different direction from where she fired <Embers>. A lot of the sand had changed colors from her previous spell, turning darker and into a different texture. Teresa wanted to compare whatever it was the spell did, if it did anything offensive. For all she knew the wand would shoot <Facilitated Restoration>, which would honestly be kind of disappointing.

Mana flowed through her once more, and it entered the wand without a problem. The poison staff had a terrible conversion rate of Mana to poisonous gas, so Teresa was surprised to feel that all of her Mana was being successfully transformed into a new kind of Mana. It felt similar to the elemental Mana from her <Embers>, though something about it made her hair stand on end.

A small lightning bolt shot out from the wand, and began to travel at a rather slow speed for literal lightning. Teresa could see it moving, hell it was slower than an arrow and smaller than one too.

Really, is that it-

KABOOM

Teresa's vision turned white as the small lightning bolt collided with the sand, and a massive, larger than life lightning bolt struck down from the sky. This one was massive, far larger than any lightning Teresa had seen online before. It only stayed in existence for a fraction of a second, but the sudden lightning strike left a crater in the ground. Holy shit, that was awesome. Teresa was going to obliterate the next strongho-

A crack appeared in the handle of the wand, and began to travel down the shaft while making a horrible splintering sound. No. No no no no no. Teresa tried to repair the wand with Mana, but she couldn't find a way to give the wand Mana without casting the spell again. All of her other tools that could be repaired with Mana had a pretty easy to find method of doing so, so easy you could figure it out accidentally.

It seemed the wand did not have this self repairing function, and thankfully the cracks stopped spreading after a dreadful second. Really? Did the wand only have a certain number of uses or something? Come on, that's stupid. The System really let Teresa think she had just turned into a walking catastrophe only to be hit in the face by reality. She couldn't use the wand too much, just using it once in a demonstration had already caused some damage to the weapon.

Aside from the C4, it was easily the strongest weapon in Teresa's arsenal. She would have to only use it on special occasions, like while fighting a monster stronghold. If a stronghold could give her another wand, then it made sense to use the weapons she was given to get more. The same might be true for the C4, but she couldn't think of how it would be useful while attacking a stronghold. C4 required too much setup for not a lot of reward. She might blow up the treasure chest inside the stronghold if she wasn't careful, she had no idea how explosive C4 actually was. That wasn't even considering that it was magic C4, whatever that meant.

Either way, Teresa felt unbelievably prepared for the next stronghold already. As a matter of fact, she was pretty sure it would be the easiest stronghold she would ever have to conquer in this Tutorial.

She gathered her belongings and ran back to Liberty Island, stopping along the way to fight a group of monsters. They were Wyvern-Fish, which was fitting. Teresa wanted to test her <Embers> against an enemy, and who better than a monster that also used fire.

The highest level monster was 22, making these monsters the strongest Teresa had ever faced. She lifted her hand up into the air and tried to imagine how far her <Embers> would travel. She hadn't tested the range on her new spell yet, and this probably wasn't the best time to find out, but she knew fights granted the most experience for her skills anyways.

Sparks began shooting out into the sky, creating a cascade of what looked like a meteor shower in the air. They rained down on the sand, and Teresa had to focus on her skill to adjust her aim. She tried channeling the Mana through her arm faster, giving it extra momentum before it was accelerated through the barrier that turned it into an actual spell.

This changed the velocity of the spell's projectiles slightly, but it was enough for minor adjustments. Soon the Wyvern-Fish were under siege by a sea of sparks, each one sizzling flesh.

The monsters began sprinting towards Teresa at a terrifying pace, so she raised her second hand and began using the spell in both hands. The sea of sparks intensified, and she saw several of the monsters clutching at their eyes and silently screaming as the Wyvern-Fish didn't seem to vocalize at all. There were eight monsters in total, but by the time any of them reached her seven of them had lost at least one eye.

The leading Wyvern-Fish opened its mouth and a bright red light shone out from within, but Teresa didn't hesitate. She aimed both hands directly at the one Wyvern-Fish, and soon its face was melting before it could even launch its own attack.

You Have Slain {Atrocious Wyvern-Fish (F) (lv 21)}

Experience Granted

Level Up!

She literally melted the flesh off of the monster until it died, and soon the other Wyvern-Fish followed suit. The one fight had been enough to get a good chunk of experience due to their levels, Teresa was already 34% of the way to level 23. <Embers> had also leveled up, and it was only her first time using it in combat.

It had only taken one offensive skill to suddenly change the entire tone of Teresa's fights. She had been stuck fighting monsters that were lower level than her due to her support-centered build, but now the script had flipped. She was confident she could take out monsters at a higher level than her, hell she might not even need her wand for the next stronghold. Using it wouldn't grant any of her skills experience, and if it wasn't necessary there was no reason to waste the weapon's potential on monsters Teresa could kill herself.

She was about to burn the next stronghold to the ground.